Sīyì Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng jiǎnzhù 思益梵天所問經簡註
Concise Notes on the Sūtra of the Questions of Brahmā Viśeṣacintin annotated by 圓澄 (Yuánchéng, 註)
About the work
This is a four-fascicle Late-Ming “concise notes” (jiǎnzhù 簡註) commentary on Kumārajīva’s KR6i0218 Sīyì Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng, by the Cáodòng 曹洞 Chán master Zhànrán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄 (圓澄; 1561–1626). The commentary is typical of late-Ming Chán-flavored sūtra exegesis: terse glosses on the canonical text, paired with brief Chán-style remarks on the doctrinal heart of each chapter.
Prefaces
The Xùzàngjīng edition preserves Yuánchéng’s own preface explaining his motive — to make the famously dense Kumārajīva translation accessible to Chán practitioners.
Abstract
A late-Ming devotional and exegetical work attached to Kumārajīva’s Sīyì Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng. Yuánchéng was a major Cáodòng revivalist active at Yúnmén 雲門 in Zhèjiāng and is better known for his Chán records (Zhànrán Yuánchéng chánshī yǔlù 湛然圓澄禪師語錄 (KR6q0374), Kǎigǔ lù 慨古錄 (KR6q0171), Zōngmén huòwèn 宗門或問 (宗門或問)). The Jiǎnzhù offers a window onto how late-Ming Chán reread classical Mahāyāna scripture.
Translations and research
- Wu, Jiang. Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China. Oxford, 2008 — discusses Yuánchéng’s place in the late-Ming Caodong revival.